ANNUAL NAACP BREAKFAST A SPIRITED AFFAIR

Compassion for all emerged as a poignant theme of the annual breakfast held Monday by the Southwest Riverside County branch of the NAACP to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr.

About 70 people attended the Branch 1034 event held at the Corporate Room in Wildomar.

Remarks, performances and discussion touched on a number of ideals espoused by King, the seminal civil rights leader whose life was taken by an assassin’s bullet in April 1968.

Given the Christian affiliation of King, Monday’s presentations not surprisingly had religious overtones.

One audience member, apparently of another denomination, reacted with concern that the tone of the messages was exclusionary.

That prompted another, Jeanie Gaines, to respond passionately that people of all faiths and levels of society need to embrace compassion for each other.

“It’s about churches coming together as a whole,” she said. “It doesn’t have to do with a denomination. It doesn’t have to do with a color.”

She added, “God gave us something that we could give away every day, and that’s love,” prompting many to rise and applaud.

It was the second standing ovation Gaines received, the first being her theatrical and vocal performance with the piano accompaniment of Samuel J. Walker Jr.

Launching into the spiritual “Wade in the Water,” Gaines emerged from an alcove wearing a bonnet with an old-fashioned dress and apron that observers realized were meant to re-create a slave’s apparel.

She acted out a monologue in the role of a mother whose children had been taken away to be sold as slaves on another plantation, before launching into “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.” Other songs in her medley of spirituals included “This Train,” “I’m Going Home to Be With My Father,” “Amazing Grace,” and “I Will See Jesus.”

Other performances included a gospel choir, a dance duet and poetry reading.

The event included a discussion on the meaning of King’s message moderated by Lake Elsinore Councilman Brian Tisdale and featuring as panelists pastor Beau Arbuthmot, Murrieta Mesa High student Dominique Conway, minister Jerome P. Andrews, and Walker, a veteran educator from Moreno Valley.

“I felt I saw the community coming together in a positive way,” said Lake Elsinore resident Shirley Johnson, who is president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s North San Diego County branch.

Branch 1034 President Mary Venerable said she was pleased to see the event come off smoothly after the moderator she initially had booked had to cancel for personal reasons.

Tisdale, whom Venerable succeeded as branch president, agreed to fill in and also delivered a passionate speech on the need for black Americans to continue their fight for equality.

“Even though there’s been a lot of change, there’s still more change that needs to be done,” he said.